Saturday, August 27, 2005

open letter to local convenience store

Dear owner of my local convenience store,

I shop at your store everyday, at least once a day, occassionally up to three times aday. I generally shop in the evening, shortly after eight-o-clock bedtime is over formy kids. In the last couple of weeks, I have noticed a new employee in your store. It is hardto miss her because of the abrasive, rude manner in which she speaks to people,mainly other children.

I felt like saying something in defence of these kids a couple of times and everytime Iwent home, berating myself that I hadn't spoken up. If I had told the clerk that I wantedto use the remainder of my change for candy, would she have muttered "How did I knowyou were going to say that?" as she told me how many candy I could have? And wouldshe have yelled at me in front of a long line of customers that she was currently waitingon to "Hurry up! It shouldn't take you THAT long to pick out your candy!" Somehow,I doubt it. In my head, I kept thinking if that was my child that she was yelling atand making feel like a criminal in front of a store full of people, then I would saysomething.

That day has come.

Yesterday at around 6:30, my husband sent my ten year old daughter around the cornerto your store to buy some bacon. My daughter entered the store and did not knowwhere bacon might be. She wandered around for a bit and looked and when shecouldn't find it, she approached the counter, where there was a male customer aheadof her. Before the male moved on, the clerk said to my daughter "Are you buying something?Or are you buying nothing?" in a harsh enough tone that my daughter wasembarassed. When my daughter asked if they had bacon, she was told abruptlythat they did not, they were all out.

I went to the store a couple hours later to get our requisite 2 chocolate bars andbottle of Diet Coke. I had also intended to remark in passing to the clerk thatshe might want to rethink how she speaks with children. However, while I was inthe store, I witnessed her literally screaming and pointing at a boy in the store,threatening to put him out. He was visibly embarassed and shaken. I walkedup to the counter at this point and told the clerk that I did not think I could shopin this store anymore, that I shop there every day (which she acknowledged)and that my daughter had been in earlier that day and had been treated in anabrupt manner as well. The clerk began denying the minute I mentioned mydaughter. She remembered her immediately as the little blonde girl, and whenI started to say how she had felt she had been spoken to harshly, the clerk didn'teven let me finish before saying "No". She also disagreed with me by saying thatmy daughter couldn't have been embarassed because there was no one else in thestore (so in essence, she was calling my daughter a liar). At this point, I saidthat I have seen the way she talks to kids in the store and beleive my daughter,and that it isn't fair to assume that every child is a theif...we all have the capacityand ability to shoplift, to assume that because someone is under the age of 19is a suspect is stereotypical and judgemental and wrong.

I don't know what that boy was doing to warrant being yelled at like thatbut I do know that you are innocent until proven guilty and that there wasmany other approaches she could have taken with him. She could have easilycalled out, "Excuse me, could you put your stuff here on the counter whileyou get some money from your friend?" Same results, less fear and embarassmentand discomfort for all involved.

I felt bad a bit when I came home and thought about what I had said and howI had berated her in front of a store full of people. But then, when I thinkthat could have been my son or daughter on the receiving end of thatverbal assault and I don't feel bad anymore.

I have worked in retail for ten years. I spent four years in a bookstore, four yearsin a record store and one year in a store that sold tee-shirts, jewellry and sunglassesgeared towards teens, so I have had experience in dealing with large numbersof teens and pre-teens swarming your store at lunch hour and after school. However,I also saw these people as potential customers rather than as only potential shoplifters.If you are running a store then you have to figure out a way of guarding yourstore against theft without discriminating openly against people you judge as a threat.

In closing, I regret that I can no longer, in good conscience, shop at your store.I also have no wish of seeing the clerk fired. I only wanted to bring attentionto what seems to me to be wrong. I'm sure the clerk felt that she was doing herjob to the best of her capabilities, however flawed her methods may seem to me.

And one last thing, when I went to buy the chocolate bars, I noticed the coolerhad plenty of bacon in it.